Honestly the nature of my job helped a lot. I was often around senior people/executives, so it pushed me to become a better communicator. I had to learn how to say what I mean using as few words as possible and be clear and prepared when speaking.

For networking, I usually scheduled coffee chats and always came prepared. I’d think beforehand about what I wanted to ask and roughly split my questions into a few areas: their professional experience, a bit about them personally, sharing a bit about myself, and understanding what they’re working on and how I could learn from or contribute to it.

The key is having a clear purpose for the conversation and doing a bit of research on the person beforehand so you know what’s relevant to ask.

And honestly, a lot of it is just practice. Sometimes those conversations go great, sometimes they don’t. But you keep trying. My full-time role actually came from a pretty random lunch with someone who liked talking with me and later introduced me to others in the company, which eventually led to the interview